(09-17-2026 04:45 PM)TripleA Wrote:  

(09-17-2026 10:12 AM)U_of_Elvis Wrote:  

(09-16-2026 05:22 PM)TripleA Wrote:  Day 6. I'm back! Couldn't post until I got access to this board on my phone, which I never used. That took web access on another device, which I just got tonight. Updates should be easier now.

Spent several days with my sister at a state park near Springfield IL. Very nice and serene.

Finally got to try some more beer cheese soup. Good, but not great like the first time. Maybe the legend overshadowed reality.

My sis is still with me. We drove from Springfield IL to Branson MO, and stopped in to visit my new friends Bob and Judy Pour, who own a lovely vineyard in Red Bud IL, The Pour Vineyard.

Now in Branson where we will stay a few days. Going to Camping World tomorrow to see if I can trade in my trailer for a truck camper which would fit in the back of my truck bed.

Much smaller and way less luxurious, but way easier to drive. That trailer is just too big a pain in the ass to hitch and unhitch, haul around everywhere, set up and break down, etc. Truck camper would be much simpler. And cheaper.

I'll let you know how it goes.

What’s the payload on your F150 (yellow tire loading sticker in door)? Truck campers on a half ton are hard because of payload. They used to make a F150 HDPP that had 2700 pounds of payload in a four door truck but they haven’t sold that in a while to my knowledge. They were pretty hard to find when they did.

With the height of modern truck beds there is also a non trivial amount of stairs to get up and down, a lot of times without a good handrail. Does your tailgate have the steps and handrail that come out? Some truck campers require tailgate off, some (normally smaller and lighter) work with tailgate down and you can use integrated tailgate steps if you have them.

Lance (probably largest truck camper manufacture) is doing a Squire brand truck camper with a bath. It’s probably the lightest truck camper with a wet bath. Capri makes some lighter slide in truck campers but without a wet bath. The Squire 610 weighs 1475 dry, but once you add air conditioning, battery, etc they weigh about 1700 pounds.

Looked at truck campers at Camping World in Branson today, They were aluminum and light enough to work with an F-150, but they were just too small and too dark to live in full time.

So, I'm pretty much stuck with what I have. I love my F-150, and the inside of my trailer is great to live in, but it absolutely sucks to pull it with the F-150. And those tiny truck campers are just not going to cut it.

My F-150 has a carry weight of 1800 pounds, including driver, gear, tools and clothes. I'm okay with it.

Did you scale your truck, your truck and trailer without the WDH, and your truck and trailer with the WDH bars connected? That would tell you your tongue weight, and how much weight the WDH is returning to the front on your truck. Sometimes the dealer doesn’t get it set up right the first time.

If you haven’t I would get the three scale weights and level ground photos of the truck and trailer from the side and post them to an rv forum and a grand design owners forum. They may have some hitch setup recommendations that can improve your towing experience.

Or get your scale weights they take it back to a dealer for a hitch resetup.